Beatrix’s relationship with her mother had never been comfortable or happy, and Mrs. Potter—who lived on at Lindeth How, amusing herself with needlework and canaries—seemed to become even more demanding and querulous as the years passed. She did not approve of her daughter’s love of farming, her countrified and often careless appearance, or her conservation work on behalf of the National Trust. She refused to donate any of her substantial wealth to the Trust or to any other charity, which meant that much of her estate, as Beatrix wrote to her cousin Caroline, would “simply be wasted in death duties when she has hoarded it up.” Healthy to the end of her life (in spite of being so frequently indisposed), Mrs. Potter died in 1932. She was ninety-three. To a friend, Beatrix wrote simply, “I am glad she is at rest at last.”
The last decade of Beatrix’s life was a busy and mostly happy one, with her animals, her farms, and the far-flung properties she owned and managed. She had come to terms with her age. To a friend, she wrote, “Do you not feel it is rather pleasing to be so much wiser than quantities of young idiots? . . . I begin to assert myself at 70.” But the late 1930s brought fear of another war and of Hitler, the “brutal, raging lunatic,” as Beatrix called him. She was soon getting out the “dark curtains, rather moth-eaten,” which she had saved from the blackout days of World War I, and stocking up on sugar and biscuits for her two “spirited and affectionate” Pekingese.
The new war brought renewed challenges. “Crops have been a struggle,” she wrote, and markets were difficult: “I had more than three tons of wool to sell.” Her gardens produced vegetables, her hutch rabbit meat, and her cows milk, so the Heelises did not go hungry. But even though she kept busy with work, she was more frequently ill and fretted about having to spend time in bed with a cough when she would rather be up and about. She was hospitalized for serious surgery in 1939, recovered and was active for several years, then fell ill again with the familiar bronchitis. In the last months of 1943, she could look out of the window of her bedroom in Castle Cottage and across the garden to Hill Top, which she still loved with all her heart.
And that is where she died, with her beloved husband at her side, on December 22, 1943. Willie died eighteen months later. And not long after that, the National Trust, honoring their stewardship, announced the Heelis Bequest of some 4,300 acres, including fifteen farms, 500 acres of woodland, cottages, and houses, and funds for maintaining them. It was a magnificent gift. Linda Lear, Beatrix’s biographer, has written of her, “Through her passionate and imaginative stewardship of the land, she challenged others to think about preservation, not just of a few farms or fells, but of a regional ecology, of a distinct farming culture, and of a particular breed of nimble-footed grey sheep.”
When she was sorting through family letters years before her own death, Beatrix wrote to a friend that all the stories of illness and dying—the subject matter of most of the letters—left the wrong impression. “The milestones are all tombstones!” she wrote. “But the record of the cheerful jog trot round of life between them is not well kept.” I hope that, as you have read through the Cottage Tales, these small stories, light and whimsical as they are, reflect something of that “cheerful jog trot” that was Beatrix Potter Heelis’ wonderful life.
Susan Wittig Albert
Bertram, Texas, October 2010
Resources
Denyer, Susan. At Home with Beatrix Potter, New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 2000.
Hervye, Canon G. A. K., and J. A. G. Barnes. Natural History of the Lake District. London: Frederick Warne, 1970.
Lear, Linda. A Life in Nature: The Story of Beatrix Potter. London: Allen Lane (Penguin UK) and New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2007.
Potter, Beatrix. Beatrix Potter’s Letters, selected and edited by Judy Taylor. London: Frederick Warne, 1989.
Potter, Beatrix. The Journal of Beatrix Potter, 1881–1897, transcribed by Leslie Linder. London: Frederick Warne, New Edition, 1966.
Potter, Beatrix. The Tale of Mr. Tod. London: Frederick Warne, 1912.
Taylor, Judy. Beatrix Potter: Artist, Storyteller and Countrywoman , revised edition. London: Frederick Warne, 1996.
Glossary
Canna. Cannot.
Dost’a. Do you.
Gert. Great.
Grave. To cut, as to cut turf or peat.
Haver. A bread made of oats.
Mappen. May happen, perhaps.
Metal paving. Metaled lanes that are paved roads.
Mezzlement. A mystery or puzzlement.
Pattens. Traditional Lake District women’s shoes, wooden soles, leather uppers.
Rive. To cut.
Tatie pots. A potato stew.
Wigging. Dressing-down, lecture, chiding.
Recipes
Parsley’s Egg Mayonnaise, Cucumber, and Cress Sandwiches
4 eggs, hard-boiled, finely chopped and mashed
4 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 tablespoon mild mustard
salt, to taste
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
16 thin slices of firm white or whole wheat bread,
crusts removed
2 cups fresh baby mustard cress or garden cress
Mix the eggs, mayonnaise, and mustard together and season to taste. Spread half of the slices of bread with the egg mixture and layer fresh mustard or garden cress on top of each one, reserving some cress for garnishing. Place the remaining slices of bread on top, and cut each sandwich diagonally into four triangles. Arrange the sandwiches on a platter and garnish with the remaining mustard and cress.
Primrose’s Carrot Cake
Badgers love carrots in all forms, but especially in cakes.
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
4 eggs
1½cups vegetable oil
3 cups grated carrots
½cup nuts
Mix together all dry ingredients. Beat eggs and stir in the oil. Combine the wet and dry ingredients. Add carrots and nuts. Pour into three greased 9-inch layer pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 25–30 minutes.
FROSTING
½cup butter, softened
4 cups confectioners’ sugar
¼cup evaporated milk
Combine all ingredients and beat with an egg beater until of spreading consistency. (Modern cooks will be glad to use an electric mixer.)
Cumbrian Beef and Ale Stew with Herb Dumplings
A favorite in the Lake District, especially on a gray and rainy day. Serve with a hearty salad for a one-dish dinner. And please don’t leave out the parsnips.
2 pounds flank steak, chopped into chunks
salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
3 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons cooking oil
3 red onions, chopped
3 slices bacon, chopped
3 sticks of celery, chopped
3 tablespoons minced fresh rosemary
5 cups Newcastle Brown Ale or other dark ale
1 cup water
2 parsnips, peeled and chopped
2 carrots, chopped
4 potatoes, peeled and chopped
DUMPLINGS
2 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
⅔ cup butter
½ teaspoon salt
pepper, to taste
2 tablespoons minced fresh rosemary
water
Season the beef with salt and pepper and toss with flour until coated. Heat the oil in a frying pan and brown the beef. Transfer to a large kettle, along with the rest of the flour. Place over medium heat, add the onions and bacon, and cook until the onions are translucent. Add the remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce to a simmer while you make the dumplings.
Work the flour, baking powder, butter, salt, pepper, and rosemary together until they are
crumbly, then add just enough water to make a dough that is not sticky. Form golf ball–sized dumplings and drop these into the stew, pushing them under the liquid. Cover the pot and simmer for 2 hours. Serves six.
Sticky Toffee Pudding
This North Country dessert is said to have been developed in 1907 at The Gait Inn in Millington in the East Riding of Yorkshire, although the Udny Arms Hotel in Newburgh, Aberdeenshire, claims to be the pudding’s birthplace. Like other English puddings, it is a moist, fruity cake topped with a sauce instead of a frosting.
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¾ cup pitted dates, finely chopped
1¼ cups boiling water
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ cup unsalted butter, softened
¾ cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
TOFFEE SAUCE
½ cup unsalted butter
½ cup heavy cream
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 cup heavy cream, whipped (for topping)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 10-inch round or square baking dish. Sift the flour and baking powder together into a small bowl. Place the chopped dates in a small bowl; add the boiling water and baking soda and set aside. In a medium bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Beat in the flour mixture in two or three additions. Add the date mixture to the batter and fold with a rubber spatula until blended. Pour into the greased baking dish. Bake until set and firm on top, about 35 minutes. Cool in the baking dish.
In a small, heavy saucepan, combine butter, cream, and brown sugar. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil gently over medium low heat until mixture is thickened, about 7–8 minutes. Set aside.
Just before serving, preheat broiler. Spoon about ⅓ cup of the sauce over the pudding, spreading evenly. Place pudding under the broiler until the topping is bubbly, about 1 minute. Spoon into dessert dishes and serve immediately, drizzled with remaining toffee sauce and topped with a generous dollop of whipped cream.
Mrs. Beeton’s Sage and Onion Stuffing (for geese, ducks, and pork)
It was Millie Warne who gave the new Mrs. Heelis her copy of Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management, a classic of domestic literature that every proper British bride of her era longed to possess. It included a table of wages for domestics, instructions on “How to Bleed,” and a remedy for toothache that required a shilling and a piece of zinc. But while some of Mrs. Beeton’s instructions may be dated, her recipes for such traditional British foods as sage and onion stuffing are truly timeless, whether or not you dispense with the egg.
4 large onions
10 sage leaves
¼ pound bread crumbs
salt and pepper, to taste
1½ ounce butter
1 egg
Peel the onions, put them into boiling water, let them simmer for 5 minutes or rather longer, and, just before they are taken out, put in the sage leaves for a minute or two to take off their rawness. Chop both these very fine, add the bread crumbs, seasoning, and butter and work the whole together with the yolk of an egg, when the stuffing will be ready for use. It should be rather highly seasoned, and the sage leaves should be very finely chopped. Where economy is studied, the egg may be dispensed with.
China Bayles Mysteries by Susan Wittig Albert
THYME OF DEATH
WITCHES’ BANE
HANGMAN’S ROOT
ROSEMARY REMEMBERED
RUEFUL DEATH
LOVE LIES BLEEDING
CHILE DEATH
LAVENDER LIES
MISTLETOE MAN
BLOODROOT
INDIGO DYING
A DILLY OF A DEATH
DEAD MAN’S BONES
BLEEDING HEARTS
SPANISH DAGGER
NIGHTSHADE
WORMWOOD
HOLLY BLUES
MOURNING GLORIA
AN UNTHYMELY DEATH
CHINA BAYLES’ BOOK OF DAYS
With her husband, Bill Albert, writing as Robin Paige
DEATH AT BISHOP’S KEEP
DEATH AT GALLOWS GREEN
DEATH AT DAISY’S FOLLY
DEATH AT DEVIL’S BRIDGE
DEATH AT ROTTINGDEAN
DEATH AT WHITECHAPEL
DEATH AT EPSOM DOWNS
DEATH AT DARTMOOR
DEATH AT GLAMIS CASTLE
DEATH IN HYDE PARK
DEATH AT BLENHEIM PALACE
DEATH ON THE LIZARD
Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter Mysteries by Susan Wittig Albert
THE TALE OF HILL TOP FARM
THE TALE OF HOLLY HOW
THE TALE OF CUCKOO BROW WOOD
THE TALE OF HAWTHORN HOUSE
THE TALE OF BRIAR BANK
THE TALE OF APPLEBECK ORCHARD
THE TALE OF OAT CAKE CRAG
THE TALE OF CASTLE COTTAGE
Darling Dahlias Mysteries by Susan Wittig Albert
THE DARLING DAHLIAS AND THE CUCUMBER TREE
THE DARLING DAHLIAS AND THE NAKED LADIES
Nonfiction books by Susan Wittig Albert
WRITING FROM LIFE
WORK OF HER OWN
The Tale of Castle Cottage Page 27
